


Promise Me

by BringTheStorm



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Also the council and the black swan AND the Neverseen are working together to stop Sophie, But you don’t actually see it happen, F/M, Fitz has to stop her, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, I give you no context, Keefe is dead, Mentions of Keefe dying, Set in the future, Sophie is literally destroying the world, This is darker than I remember, also Mr. Snuggles is here too because this story needed SOME HAPPINESS, because why not, good luck with that, i don’t ship Sophiz but I wrote this anyway, why? Because I killed him, written before Unlocked came out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:06:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29887758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BringTheStorm/pseuds/BringTheStorm
Summary: Fitz wasn’t there when Sophie accidentally stole all of their friends abilities, but he was there when Keefe died.“You have to go after her. It was you and only you in her heart. You're the only one who can stop her.”Drowning in guilt, Fitz goes after Sophie.After all, he is her cognate.AKA “bUt wE'rE cOgNaTeS” comes back to haunt Fitz :)
Relationships: Keefe Sencen & Fitz Vacker, Sophie Foster/Fitz Vacker
Kudos: 7





	Promise Me

**Author's Note:**

> Anthropokinesis: the ability to control humans

Fitz’s fingers trembled as he wrote. He couldn’t believe this was happening, that he was doing this.

_ I need to get her back. It’s all my fault. _

Taking a deep breath, he finished writing and set his pen down.

_ Remember why you’re doing this. _

He left the note on his pillow, wishing he could take back everything he had written. Knowing he couldn’t.

_ Dear Biana, Mom and Dad, _

_ I’m going after her. I don’t expect you to understand, but I hope you’ll forgive me. Especially since I probably will never see you again. _

Mr. Snuggles stared at him accusingly as he held the stolen leaping crystal to the light and lept away.

***

Even as the scene cleared around him, he still had doubts. 

Until Keefe’s anguished ice blue eyes invaded his mind.

_ You have to go after her, _ he was saying.  _ You’re the only one who can reach her. It was you and always you in her heart. She needs her cognate back. Or she’s going to destroy the world. _

Fitz could still feel Keefe’s firm grip on his arm.

_ Promise me. _

Could still hear his own voice.

_ I promise. _

And then he was there.

Emissaries and Neverseen members, Councillors and the Collective all stood huddled together in the makeshift sanctuary.

“How could you let this happen?” Lady Gisela shouted at Mr. Forkle. “My son was supposed to be the Anthropokinetic! I purposely mixed it with Empath so it wouldn’t be this dangerous!”

“It’s not like anyone’s ever enhanced a genetically modified enhancer before!” Physic shouted back. “How were we supposed to know that contact with Jensi Babblos was going to accidentally cause her to steal all of her friend’s and familie’s abilities!?!”

“It almost killed my brother in the process,” Blur- who Fitz was still getting used to thinking of as Jensi’s older brother added. “When we were planning Project Moonlark, we never anticipated this!”

“And it wasn’t all her friend’s abilities,” Councilor Emery said. “Mr. Vacker wasn’t there, if he can even still be counted as her friend after the fight that set it all off and what happened to Mr. Sencen.”

Fitz felt a stab of pain in his chest just remembering that day.

He had accused her of not caring if they lived or died while facing the Neverseen. The memory of the hurt in her eyes made him physically ache.

He had lept home to sulk for the rest of the day, so he wasn’t there for what happened next, but Biana had told him about it.

They were planning to defeat the Neverseen once and for all when Jensi arrived, excited about his new special ability as an enhancer. He had accidentally enhanced her while she was still anguished over their fight, and it caused a weird reaction where she sucked the abilities of everyone in a hundred mile radius away.

Since Keefe’s new ability was tied to the shadowflux and quintessence in his heart, it mingled with her altered genes along with her inflicting and newly stolen Mesmer abilities, causing her to lose control over herself. The shadowflux and quintessence took over while she was in her vulnerable state, controlling her every move and fighting to destroy the world.

But since the light and shadows were stolen from Keefe’s heart, it slowly stopped working. Fitz arrived to apologize for his outburst right after she had teleported away.

Just in time to see his best friend die.

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

Councilor Oralie finally spotted him, just as he was sneaking out the back door.

“Fitz, don’t!” She shouted. “She’s too dangerous-”

But he was already gone.

***

Fitz hadn’t been back to San Diego since the day he had brought her to the Lost Cities, but it definitely wasn’t anything like the little he remembered.

Tsunamis surged through alleys, firestorms burnt entire neighborhoods to ash. Monsters made of rubble patrolled the streets.

But perhaps the most chilling of all were the humans. 

Anthropokinetisis was one of the abilities she had stolen from Keefe. Control of humans.

They marched, eyes glazed, through the streets. Thousands of them. Fitz saw an old man collapse from sheer exhaustion. The others didn’t seem to notice. They trampled his body as they circled like sharks.

Fitz used telekinesis to lift one of the rubble monsters and throw it into the path of a tsunami. All the humans turned in unison towards the sound as he sprinted through them.

And immediately collapsed from the weight of her inflicting, made twice as powerful from the extra ability she had stolen from Bronte. The fear and anguish made him want to run back to safety.

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

He dragged himself forward, levitating over another tsunami.

And then he was there.

At the place he had found her.

She levitated in a storm of light and shadows, fire and water, lightning and wind. It was all so overwhelming he could barely look at her.

The anger and fear and grief and hate and self loathing- it all made him want to collapse, because it wasn't just her’s. It was his as well.

_ My fault. My fault. _

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

Her eyes glowed magenta as she glowed and hid and burned and drowned.

He tried to creep up behind her as she floated in her trance, but tripped on the lid of a dumpster. A rogue banana peel wrapped itself around his ankle.

She spun around, her magenta eyes focused on him as he got to his feet despite the overpowering wind. 

His skinned knees were bleeding, but he didn’t care.

NOW ISN’T THAT ADORABLE, she said. FITZ VACKER HAS COME TO PLAY THE HERO. OR MAYBE BEG FOR MERCY. IT'S NO DIFFERENCE TO ME.

“I’ve come for neither!” he shouted over the noise of the fire and water and wind and thunder and screams and the very earth trembling, as if it knew she could, and would destroy it. “I’ve come for my cognate, Sophie Foster.”

For a second, her magenta eyes flickered back to their beautiful brown.

And then the magenta was back, making him wonder if he had only imagined it.

_ You have to go after her. _

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

“Sophie, listen!” he shouted. “I-”

THE SOPHIE YOU KNEW IS GONE, the monster of shadows and light boomed, in his head and aloud. THE BLACK SWAN CREATED A MOONLARK, SO A MOONLARK IS WHAT SHE BECAME. AND A MOONLARK MUST SURVIVE ALONE.

“Even a moonlark has a flock,” Fitz argued. It sounded like a mouse fighting with a giant.

I MADE MY OWN FLOCK, the moonlark boomed. MY OLD ONE ABANDONED ME.

In an instant, Fitz was attacked by a swarm of humans. He didn’t want to hurt any of them, since they were all under the Moonlark’s control. Unfortunately, he knocked out a five year old’s tooth. Hopefully the child would still get something from the “Tooth Fairy” Sophie had told him about.

“They never abandoned you!” he shouted, struggling to levitate above the crowd in the gale. “They loved you!”

THEN WHY DID THEY LET ME BECOME THIS!

Fitz collapsed into a pile of humans, as they all were pinned under the full weight of Sophie’s inflicting.

And the one emotion she was assaulting them with.

Guilt.

She was an Empath now, so she had access to as many emotions as she needed to continue the pain forever.

Everything in him ordered him to run. To doom the world. To let his anger win.

Everything except Keefe.

_ You have to go after her. You’re the only one who can reach her. It was you and always you in her heart. She needs her cognate back. Or she’s going to destroy the world. _

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

“None of this was your fault, Sophie!” he shouted through the pain. “Jensi doesn’t blame you. Keefe didn’t blame you. None of us blame you!”

Her magenta eyes blazed wildly.

BUT YOU DID.

The wind whipped every word from his mouth, but luckily, he didn’t need his mouth to talk.

_ I’m sorry Sophie, for all the times I made you feel guilty, for all the times I didn’t believe in you, for all the times I blamed you, for all the times I pressured you. _

The light and dark and energy and fire and water and everything else felt like they were warring in her mind, and Fitz was right there to get her through it.

_ It isn’t your special abilities or gifts or powers that make you amazing, Sophie. It's that you are you. And I love YOU. Not your powers. I just love you with all my heart. _

Time seemed to stop as the tsunamis froze and the firestorms halted and the wind stopped in its tracks.

AHHHHHH!!! the moonlark screamed. Her eyes flickered back to brown as she convulsed in the air.

“Fitz, I can’t do it!” Sophie cried. “I can’t hold it all in! It’s going to destroy the world!”

_ Promise me. _

_ I promise. _

He levitated and wrapped his arms around her, helping her hold it all in.

“Good thing a moonlark has a flock.”

She smiled gratefully at him as the energy flowed through her and into him and then back, in a circle.

“Do you really mean it?” She asked quietly. “It’s a really bad time, but if the universe is about to end, I want to know.”

He held her tighter.

“I meant every word.”

She squeezed his hand.

“I love you too.”

As the light and dark, fire and water, energy wind and countless other things too powerful for any one person to hold, they felt stronger than ever before.

And not because of the power.

Stronger because, for once, they were together.

_ I fulfilled my promise, Keefe. It might not have done anything, but I tried. _

_ Come what may. _

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry.  
> I’m not going to tell you what happens next.  
> I hope you liked it?  
> Also, I’m sorry about Keefe.  
> Sorry.


End file.
